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TAPS case likely to be settled
A major rate case for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline is taking longer than expected but is “ripe for settlement,” according to the administrative law judge presiding over the case.
“A review of the record to date demonstrates that these proceedings are ripe for settlement and that a settlement will be in the best interest of all parties,” Curtis L. Wagner Jr., the chief administrative law judge for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, wrote in an order issued on Dec. 12. Wagner also noted that he “is agreeable to designating a settlement judge to assist the parties if they desire.”
Concurrent hearings FERC and the Regulatory Commission of Alaska have been holding concurrent hearings in recent months to sort out issues related to the rates charged to ship oil on the pipeline.
The hearings are set to end in late January of next year, with the parties filing briefs in March and the regulatory bodies issuing their initial decisions on June 29, 2012.
The case involves a series of rate increases on the pipeline, concerning both in-state and out-of-state markets, requested by four of its five owners, subsidiaries of ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Union Oil Company of California and Koch Alaska. The largest owner of the pipeline, BP, did not request any rate increases, but is a party to the federal case.
The case primarily concerns whether and how those companies can include the cost of the Strategic Reconfiguration project into the rates they charge for use of the pipeline.
—Eric Lidji
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